A few weeks ago I wrote about Coming Clean’s 8-week war on clutter. I said I would take it easy - and I have.
Since the last update I have cleaned out the bathroom, and organized my stash of yarn. So now I have about 200 yarns in my stash at Ravelry - all beautifully (well…) photographed and entered with all available information. I’ve also been able to photograph my UFOs, and some of my older pullovers and sweaters - just to show, that I can knit other things besides socks!
While I was photographing my yarn, the Burmese were out in the garden with me. So I snapped at few of them, too.
Two boys in the sun while everything is calm…
A short while later this…
Yes, the “bully” is the elder og larger brother. He is the strongest of all of the cats, but only plays, luckily. Neither of his younger litter-siblings are afraid of fighting with him, although they always end up loosing.
Bashing in the sun…
And then their close-ups:
Númenor
Anduin
Khazad(-Dum)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Organization, Other blogs
Slowly does it - eventually I will get there! I got my CueCat and have been scanned barcodes like crazy. Still I have only entered just over 800 books so far. A guestimate, there is still 4/5 to go.
I have entered one shelf of cookery books, and still have at least 5 shelves - the ones with the smaller books. A lot of the gardening and house plant books, all the history, science, encyclopedias, dictionaries and basically all the fiction is still to go.
Too bad I use a pc, and not a mac. I would love to be able to add my DVDs and CDs, too. Of well, can’t have it all, I guess.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Books
It is amazing how many food groups that are out there. Here are some more I recently discovered:
You Want Pies with That (YWPwT) makes, well, pies - of every conceivable kind. Once a month you make a pie chosen by the host. You bake your pie, take a picture and post it to your blog before the 7th of the month. In May you could make any pie that reminded you of your childhood. I am not sure that you always can choose whatever you want, there might be some restraints at times. The July theme was “Nuts” (incl. coconut). On their website you can see photos of the baked pies - all with links to the original blog posts, and I assume, recipe.
Cookie Carnival is a wonderful group. Every month you choose to sign up for the upcoming challenge (without knowing what it is, I believe), and all you have to do afterwards is bake the chosen cookies, post the pictures and wait and see how the other’s turn out. This you can see in the monthly round-up on their website.
Here you can see how to join. In June they made Strawberry Shortcake Cookies (Martha Stewart), for July they had Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Graze. This is a group that everyone interested in baking should be able to join. If you don’t like the cookies, I am sure that neighbours, friends or co-workers would love to dispose them.
Bread Baking Day (BBD) is an invention of a German in Spain. They are currently on their 23rd edition, where this time you are to bake “something you haven’t tried before”. For every challenge you participate in you get a logo with the equivalent number on. Other challenges have been: Country Bread, Pizza, Multigrain Bread, Quick Breads, Sweet Breads, Bread with Potatoes, Bread with Cheese, Shaped Breads, Flat Breads, Celebration Breads, Breads with Rye Sourdoughs, Filled Breads, Breads and Spices, Bread with Fruit, Breads with Oats, Breads with Herbs, Breakfast Breads, Breads with Sprouts, Small Breads, Coloured Breads, 100% Grain Breads and Festive Breads. Sounds like a healthy group to participate in, and with only one bread a month I think I should be able to make it.
Bread Baking Babes (BBB) is a challenge where you get a recipe for some type of bread and then have one week (I think) to bake it. As usual, photos are sent to the central blog. Some of the later challenges has been Sukkar bi Tahin from Beirut (Tahini Swirls), Ethiopian Sourdough Crepes, Italian Knot Breads, Pan Francese, 5-grain Bread with Walnuts and Asparagus Bread. The recipes are posted on the site with the challenge. Sounds like something I should participate in.
Recipes to Rival (R2R) is akin to Daring Kitchen’s Daring Cooks. You are not allowed to miss two challenges in a row and must be active in the forum. Their mission statement is: “To provide savory challenges that introduce new techniques and flavors and provide a supportive environment where we can work together and share the experience.”They started in June 08 and have made Coq au Vin, Ricotta, Steak Diane, Squash Soup with Vanilla Creme Fraiche, Chinese Dumplings, Tamales, Brushetta and Limocello, Beef Wellington and Ratatouille. Your can see the blog roll on their website, that is a bit behind in the updates.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Food
A few weeks ago I wrote about Coming Clean’s 8-week war on clutter. I said I would take it easy - and I have.
So far I have removed the clutter from the bedroom (week 1) and organized the deep freezer (week 2).
In the coming weeks I am hoping to do the garden shed, the office (a big task…) and the bathroom. We’ll just have to see how it goes. 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Organization, Other blogs
Yesterday I found a new group: My Kitchen, My World.
The idea here is to cook something from the chosen country. Two countries are chosen each month, one for week 2 and one for week 4 of the month. You chose your own recipe and whether you want to cook or bake. All you have to do is make a post about it on your blog and send in a small picture with a link. Then when the round-up comes on the official blog, you can see what everyone has made. You are asked to try to make at least one dish from one of the month’s countries (and apparently, they will not kick you out if you miss that).
They have so far been through the following coutries:
Argentina
Australia
Azernaijan
Brazil
Cambodia
China
Cuba
Ecuador
England
Ethiopia
France
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland (twice)
Italy
Jamaica
Korea
Lithuania
Macedonia
Mexico (twice, perhaps three times)
Morocco
Pakistan
Puerto Rico
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
The Bahamas
The Philippines
Turkey
Ukraine
“Your own country”
So no US so far (I wonder why…) - and no Nordic country, but plenty of Latin American countries. Hmm…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Food, My Kitchen My World
I’m an Organizing Junkie has a reoccuring post every week: Menu Plan Monday. On her site you can see her reasons for planning ahead, and tips to how to do it. She also has templates for the menu plan itself, as well as for grocery lists. She also has quite a few different little pictures for you to chose from when announcing your weekly dinner plan.
The idea is to sit down with your cookbooks, the Internet and look through the grocery store flyers and plan one week’s worth of dinners. That way you can 1) go shopping “once” (apart from small things like fresh milk), 2) find things that use up the leftover from other recipes (do you use all the carrots from the bunch?) and 3) you can start preparing beforehand (remember to take out something from the freezer the night before and thaw slowly). There were 329 families making their own weekly plan a few weeks ago - and adding links to their weekly menu. Nice for inspiration. Obviously, if the recipe you are using is online you link to it. Here is this weeks list of Menu Plans.
I kind of like the idea, but don’t have any intention of signing on officially just yet. That would probably be too stressful - making commitments. Better to just try and do it “out of free will” - with a back door open.
Oh, well. No-one will check up on me to see that we actually follow the plan precisely.
So here is my trial week:
Here’s what we will be eating this week:
Monday - Thai Oven-baked Pork Chops with Rice (premade last week and in freezer)
Tuesday - Five O’clock Tea with the new marmelades and cucumber sandwich
Wednesday - Mex Mac and Cheese
Thursday - Coconut Chicken with Rice (premade last week and in freezer)
Friday - Wienerschnitzel with Rösti (always packed in 4s - and we are only 2)
Saturday - Wienerschnitzel with Rösti
Sunday - Turkey Spinach Meatloaf with Tomato Sauce and Ovenbaked Potatoes (premade last week and in freezer)
Yes, about 50% of the week is premade and in the freezer. We made 15 different recipes last week with between 2 and 12 servings. That is about 43 days of dinners for two.
We also made quite a lot of marmelades: Pear-Strawberry, English Rhubarb, Rhubard-Gooseberry, Blackberry-Pear, Blackberry, Blackberry-Raspberry, Strawberry-Grape, Cherry-Red Currant, Black Currant-Red Currant, “Forestberry” (Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry), Peach-Melon, Red Currant jam and Red Currant jelly. 18 kilos (40 pounds) of fruit in total.
What a week! But SO worth it afterwards. 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Menu Plan Monday
I am a “life member” of LibraryThing and have been so for 3 years now. However, I lost my CueCat at some point after this, so I have not been adding to my library. Now I have ordered a new one for the price of 20$, incl. postage (same price as 3 years ago). So now I can soon start adding more quickly to my online list of books. A CueCat can scan ISBN barcodes and translate them to “normal” numbers. Today I have added 100 by hand - and scanned all the front pictures that were missing, too - probably about 40. *sigh*
LibraryThing is an online community for book nerds. The beauty about the site is that you can choose to keep your library secret. It is also great for having a list of your book collection. Ok, that means you have to enter them first, but when that is done, all you have to do is get to a computer and download your list. Very handy if your insurance company needs to reimburse your for your lost books. (Let’s hope that never happens) Now entering your books is not necessarily as difficult as it sounds. Enter the ISBN and search one of over 600 libraries and book sites (e.g. Library of Congress, Amazon(s), bibliotek.dk) and find your edition. Amazon also often have the picture of the front of the book. Adding this to your list is nice, as we often remember books visually (size, colour, etc.). See, for example, my widget on the side with some of my books (it changes with every refresh of the page).
There are groups for all kinds of genres with their own little forums. You can get automatic recommendations - or personal ones - for books you might like, based on your own collection. You can even make a wishlist of books or of books you have read, but don’t own (Nice! No more getting known books!). There are also reviews on books (where someone has bothered writing them). It is apparently also possible to get your book list on your mobile phone, so you can see you already own the book you are about to buy. Here is a non-mobile test page that shows what you get.
In your own collection it is possible to create undercategories if you want to. Hmm - I guess I can make a new widget - what I am currently reading… Have to try that…
In the meantime, here is a very short introduction to LibraryThing and a Tour of the site.
Hope that CueCat will be here soon. I have too many books…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Books
These past few days, I have been browsing food-related blogs. There are many great-looking recipes out there, but what really intrigued me was some of these cooking/baking groups that are out there.
The idea is usually that you have a specific cookbook and together with others decide to make the same recipe and posting the results from your rendition of the food on a particular day. You don’t have to make the food on the designated day, just post your results on that day. Also, you are usually not allowed to post the recipe on your website (if a lot do that, no-one wil buy the book anymore). Each week one or more hosts decide what to cook/bake and is responsible for answering any questions from the other members. The rules often state that you have to participate between 50 and 75% of the time to stay in the group, so make sure you will be willing to make what is chosen - before signing up.
Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) (did someone say “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom) is a group who love Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours. It is a book that has gotten very high grades on both LibraryThing (4.56 of 5) and Amazon (4.5 of 5), and I must admit - having seen some of the things that has been made from this book, I am drooling… Their website is here. Incidently Dorie Greenspan herself was asked to choose the recipe for the first anniversary. She chose the French Pear Tart. For some reason this baking book contains recipes for ice cream, too. Hmm…
Craving Ellie in My Belly (CEiMB) is a group that every Thursday posts their results from that weeks recipe from Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. This is also a book that has gotten very high grades on both LibraryThing (4.44 of 5) and Amazon (4.5 of 5). Her philosophy is that there are no forbidden food items, but some are used more often than others; also that presentation has a lot to do with it. She will put some butter on top of mashed potatoes, and you will, apparently, taste the creamy butter that isn’t in the mash itself. Instead, I believe, there is low fat cream cheese in the mash. Somehow I like this philosphy, and could see myself signing up for this group at some point.
Sweet Melissa Sundays (SMS) is a group based on Melissa Murphy’s cookbook The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Again, this book got 4.5 on Amazon, but only 3.33 on LibraryThing. Melissa also owns a patisserie. Here you obviously post on Sundays. Their website is here. This group only started in March 2009. To help the hosts they have listed all the recipes in the book on their website, and cross them out as they are chosen as ‘the recipe of the week’. Nice touch!
Daring Kitchen is actually two groups: Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks. Here you do not need a specific cookbook to join as the host will provide you with the recipe (on a closed forum). The recipe is, however, available afterwards on the host’s blog and the Daring Kitchen recipe archives. Joining here is somewhat of a longer process, as if you need to apply before a certain deadline in order to get in the following month. All this is explained in their FAQ. It does not explain why Lasagna is considered “baking”. 
If you want to see what they have made over the past few years, see here (under the introduction).
Barefoot Bloggers are followers of The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. They only post every other week on Thursdays. Their website can be found here. There is no requirement of buying the books here. Some of the recipes used are from Ina’s website.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Food, Other blogs
A while back I wrote a post about what cozy mysteries are. Now I’ve stumbled across another website with cozies - and not just cozy mysteries this time. The site is Cozy Library and you find cozy mysteries, general cozies and a few “not so cozy” (like Lisa Scottoline books). There are reviews of some books, otherwise there are booklists for some “cozy” authors with links to websites. They claim to only have books on their website that they would recommend to their friends.
“Picture an overstuffed chair, comfortable enough to sit in for hours. Imagine a cup of cocoa, topped by whipped cream, steaming on a nearby table. You might even feel the warmth from a roaring fireplace and hear gentle rain making music on your windows – it’s a perfect afternoon to be indoors.
Now put a book in your hand – but not just any book – a Cozy Book, one chocked-full of kind-hearted characters, with a terrific story masterfully told, and a satisfying – and generally happy — ending. No explicit sex or violence, no wall-to-wall profanity.
You are now in The Cozy Library.
The Cozy Library has been designed for readers who enjoy a good cozy read. It is a place to learn about cozy books you haven’t read or to get to know your favorite cozy authors.”
If you are a fan of blogs, they also have a bloglist of mystery blogs, author blogs and book blogs. For 2007-2009 they have lists of all the cozy books published, by month, they have been aware of. Here you can also see if there are any review of it yet, or if one is planned.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Books
Coming Clean has started a war - on clutter - in her post Operation Organization: The Battle for Order.
Over a period of 8 weeks, starting 31 July she, and anyone who wants to join in “the fun”, will be reorgansing a part of their home. An area may be as small as a drawer or as large as an entire room.
As she states in her post:
“Let me make one thing clear. This is NOT about perfection. It is about less stress and conflict and more efficiency. It’s about transforming our homes from messy to marvelous!”
Are you interested? See the original post for the instructions.
She wants before and after photos. Not sure I want to do that. Also, I am trying to de-stress at the moment, so I will just try to do an area per week, but without stating what beforehand (in order not to stress).
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Organization, Other blogs